STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 305 



shaping the top will save a great amount of labor in setting up boards 

 or constructing other protection during the ensuing fifteen years. A 

 stitch in time sames nine applies with ten-fold force in this place. 

 Shape the top low, three feet is high enough, trim every year for four 

 or five years in June, then you will cut only wood of the same years' 

 growth and leave no wounds. 



PROTECTION. 



Plant tre.es, if Duchess, sixteen feet apart, north and south, and 

 twenty to twenty-five feet apart the other way. Cultivate the ground 

 often during the early part of the season, stirring the soil to a depth 

 of six inches until the twentieth of June or first of July, then mulch 

 with refuse hay, straw, cornstalks or like material. This should be 

 spread about the tree to a distance of four feet from the trunk to keep 

 the ground cool and to keep down weeds. The object is to make the 

 trees grow all they will during the first part of the season. If the 

 soil is not in good condition add well rotted manure in late autumn 

 as a mulch. Ashes strewn broadcast over the ground in early spring 

 will be very beneficial. 



The first and second autumns after planting remove mulch from 

 contact with the tree, throw a mound of clear earth not less than six 

 inches high around each tree. Then wrap the body up with rye straw, 

 cornstalks or gunny sacks. And let it remain on till the last of April. 

 This is to keep the sun from injuring the bark during the winter and 

 spring; and it is all important in keeping the heart of the tree sound. 

 Every autumn thereafter until the top shades the body set up boards 

 in September to keep sunlight from reaching the body of the trees, or 

 when you wish to give the tree especial care put on bark from poles 

 peeled in May or June. For this purpose use poplar, elm, butternut 

 or white birch. Fasten this on and leave it until the next May. Now 

 do not plant an apple tree unless you are willing to do this. If you 

 neglect to do so until the top is large enough to shade the trunk, the 

 south side will be injured. Then there can be but little growth on 

 that side, and the top will incline toward the northeast and give still 

 better opportunity for injury from the sun. Few think it is the heat 

 of the sun which kills our trees off, but it is to a large extent. My 

 father informs me that he saw in 1873 a number of pear trees protected 

 from the sun on the previous winters, and that came through all right, 

 while those exposed to the sun were killed. Of course they would not 

 have been killed if the cold had not been extreme, and on the other 

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